DEAR FRIENDS,

Welcome to my redesigned website (still under construction). There are some new features. I’ve collected some of the emails you’ve sent over the years and added them to the archives of “Questions about the Bible and Judaism.” I’ve also started writing a weekly blog about the Torah portion for the week (“Parashah – Weekly Torah Reading”). You can subscribe to it by clicking below: no cookies, just Kugel.

I also have a new book out, The Kingly Sanctuary. As the subtitle says, it’s about someone in yeshiva who has become disillusioned—an attempt to discuss things about the Bible and the Talmud not usually talked about in yeshiva. For a longer description, and a way to order it (or my other books) at a discount, just click on navigate to the book under the BOOKS tab above.

JAMES L KUGEL

How To Read The Bible:

A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now

All these interpretations for the binding of Isaac — and still others — can be found in James L. Kugel’s “How to Read the Bible,” an awesome, thrilling and deeply strange book. Kugel, an emeritus professor of Hebrew literature at Harvard and, mark this, an Orthodox Jew, aims to prove that you can read the Bible rationally without losing God. - THE NEW YORK TIMES

In the Valley of the Shadow

On the Foundations of Religious Belief

The Kingly Sanctuary

For a Jewish Student Who Has Become Disillusioned

Kugel has a fine ear for narrative, a lifelong scholar’s discipline, and a wonder and confidence fed by his beliefs. His gathering up of a life’s work gives readers a chance to brush up against genius, and perhaps examine those beliefs we claim for ourselves.- The Seattle Times